IT all started as a less injury-prone alternative to football – a sport which could be played indoors to help athletes in from the cold during the winter months.

These pictures were taken as basketball approached it's centenary – almost 100 years from when Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith invented the sport in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891.

Naismith originally used fruit baskets nailed to the lower railing of a gym balcony and each time a point was scored, the game was halted so the janitor could bring out a ladder and retrieve the ball. Eventually the bottoms of the fruit baskets were removed.

The sport, which is now an integral part of American culture, rapidly became established in American colleges before becoming a professional game.

The images on these pages were taken locally in March 1990.